The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws.When workers in the cafeteria ran outside, they saw black smoke pouring from shattered windows. It came from the area where employees polished thousands of iPad cases a day.

Tim Cook, Apple’s newly appointed CEO has sent a letter to all Apple employees today sharing the company’s efforts to make worker conditions better, saying that Apple cares, “about every worker in our worldwide supply chain.”

“We are focused on educating workers about their rights, so they are empowered to speak up when they see unsafe conditions or unfair treatment. As you know, more than a million people have been trained by our program.”

“We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word. You can follow our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility.”

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While it is great to see Apple talking about making changes, if the company wants to really make a difference, they should take the strict quality control standards they have in place for their products and apply them to the treatment of workers who assemble the products.

Mike Daisy went to Shenzen to see the factories in person, sharing his findings in a monologue, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. In an interview with TechCrunch, he shares the tales of Foxconn workers.

What are your thoughts on Apple’s factories and the beginning of your consumer electronics?

Josh Smith is Editor of GottaBeMobile and Notebooks.com. He's always looking for ways to help you get the most of your gear and loves to talk about tech on radio and TV. Josh uses an iOS and Android devices as well as Mac and Windows Computers. Josh Smith on Google+
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3 COMMENTS

– Apple CEO picks up the phone now today, tells Foxconn Apple wants to double salaries and halve work time requirements per worker.

I quickly calculated it’d cost Apple less than $720 million per quarter. With a $13 billion profit, they can afford it.

Basically workers can get paid $400/month (instead of $200/month) and work 160hr/month (instead of 320hr/month). Positive effect is that Foxconn can hire twice as many workers and there is still plenty left over for plenty of paid holidays for all, free food, free healthcare, free dental care, free after-work career training (so they can try to get other jobs after being at Foxconn), better private housing, free public transportation.

[…] own by incorporating the ideas of Apple being a better world citizen into its DNA. When Apple came under increased scrutiny for the way workers manufacturing its iPhone and iPad lines, Tim Cook himself personally took a […]